1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for recognizing fingerprints, and more specifically, to a method and apparatus for quickly and accurately authenticating a user based on a direction of a fingerprint input by the user.
2. Description of the Related Art
A fingerprint, which is one of the simplest and most reliable biometric features of human for identification, has been widely used for person authentication because it has uniqueness and constancy. Fingerprint recognition technology is largely classified into fingerprint classification and fingerprint matching. Fingerprint classification is technology of classifying a large fingerprint database into different classes, such as whorl, arch, tented arch, left loop, right loop, etc., e.g., based on the Henry system, which was developed to improve the performance of automated fingerprint recognition systems.
In general, fingerprint recognizers for person authentication authenticate a user by receiving the user's fingerprint and determining if the user's fingerprint matches a registered fingerprint. However, fingerprint recognizers according to the related art cannot recognize a user's fingerprint when the user the fingerprint is input in a different direction from that in which a fingerprint recognition sensor is positioned. Accordingly, users are often required to input their fingerprints several times for authentication.